Check the child understands negative forms of words before beginning these activities. Model the structure you are trying to encourage e.g. ‘The coat is not blue’. Many of the activities can be adapted to focus on different negative forms e.g. don’t, can’t, won’t, hasn’t, isn’t etc.

Guessing game – The child thinks of an object or selects a picture from a given theme/topic and gives negative clues to help the others guess the object e.g. animals -‘It’s not big, it does not live in the sea, it hasn’t got spots.’

Spot the difference – Use two similar pictures with minor differences between them. Ask the child to point out the differences and tell you why. Model the answer if they are having difficulties e.g. ‘This shoe is brown, this shoe is not brown.’

Role Play – In a restaurant or sweet shop where you are the waiter/shop assistant and the child is the customer, the child requests item/s using pictures or plastic food items and a basket. The waiter/shop assistant has brought over the wrong items, so the child has to tell you ‘I don’t want bananas, I don’t want biscuits, I want jelly.’ Repeat the game, using various items.

Odd one out – Show a set of pictures - three similar and one different (e.g. sandwich, apple, cheese, pen). The child says which is different and why e.g. ‘You can’t eat a pen’. You can make this task easier by giving a clue e.g. ‘eat’.

What’s wrong – Show a picture of something silly and ask the child what is wrong with the picture e.g. ‘He isn’t wearing trousers’, ‘She hasn’t got shoes on’, ‘You can’t eat soup with a fork’ etc.

Activities for developing use of negatives